Giving a New Rifle a Hot Water Bath

Dogman-K

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Even though I am an experienced (65 years) shotgunner, I am a relative newbie to rifle shooting (excluding my Army service 1968-70) and am looking for helpful advice from knowledgeable shooters.

I read the article Give Your New Gun Some Love and a Bath Before Shooting It on Shooting Sports USA and would like to see any comments pro or con, from experienced rifle shooters, regarding what the author had proposed.

Here’s a link to the article. https://www.ssusa.org/articles/2017/2/7/give-your-new-gun-some-love-and-a-bath-before-shooting-it


Many thanks.
 
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hereinaz

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At most I power wash it with brake cleaner and lube up after.

Microscopic machining pieces? I think he is way over the top...
 
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Sounds like the NRA knows as much about cleaning a rifle as they do about the natural right to bear arms.
He basically admitted that his entire process was based entirely on speculation. He has no industry knowledge or experience, and no evidence to back his claims.

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Dogman-K

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Thanks for the responses. When I read the article, I was astonished that somebody would pour boiling water down the barrel if a gun to flush out oil and debris not to mention doing it in a kitchen sink. I found it a bit bizarre.
 

B23

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I don't know what y'all think but IMO he's got enough lube on that one lug for about 10 bolts.
 

ckleeves

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1/4” accuracy with a 700 and factory Ammo? C’mon Man!

I don’t think the water could really hurt anything, people do way worse things to barrels all the time but unless pissing your significant other off is the goal I don’t see it accomplishing anything either.


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Squincher

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I don't know about the details in the article, but I know hot water in the trigger well and chamber of an M-16 was the best way to get it turned back in to the arms room on the first try.
 
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I'll be the contrarian here - as long as you treat it right afterwards, why not? Firing it is going to get it plenty hot, hot water and dish soap as a solvent are pretty great, what's not to like? I did a bunch of really high level cleaning for aerospace parts and we regularly used a hot ultrasonic cleaner run (180f) with a detergent followed by a hot deionized water flush, followed by a a quick splash of ethanol and inert gas for drying. Worked fantastically well, but you absolutely needed to treat the parts carefully afterwards because they would flash rust very easily.

Now whether it's necessary, that's a whole nother level of crazy in my mind.
 
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Muzzleloader guys have been using boiling water for eons to season a new barrel. The reason you use boiling water is so it quickly evaporates and leaves no chemical residue that will cause problems with black powder. Then you swab in a natural bore butter, almost like seasoning a cast iron skillet. It makes it so the bore is easier to clean and provides a barrier between the metal and black powder remnants that are highly corrosive.

Never done it with a rifle using smokeless non-corrosive powder.
 

remnar

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One reason you use boiling water for a muzzleloader is to not have your powder fowled by left over solvents/oils . I agree you could use this method . But why ? In this day and age for a cartridge rifle there are alot better options .

I will say that an oldtimer I used to know shot competitive rimfire pistol shoots in the Woodsman/High Standard days of the 40s and 50s . He said they would strip and boil their pistols to get rid of all the gunk and bullet lube . He also stated they had to dry hot as not to rust .

But again lots of options these days .... MY 2 Cents
 
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One reason you use boiling water for a muzzleloader is to not have your powder fowled by left over solvents/oils . I agree you could use this method . But why ? In this day and age for a cartridge rifle there are alot better options .

I will say that an oldtimer I used to know shot competitive rimfire pistol shoots in the Woodsman/High Standard days of the 40s and 50s . He said they would strip and boil their pistols to get rid of all the gunk and bullet lube . He also stated they had to dry hot as not to rust .

But again lots of options these days .... MY 2 Cents
Exactly. Kind of like how we use to bleed people with leeches.
 
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